I heard about some unsettling things about Friday Night Tykes, the documentary about the Texas Football Association, so when I came across it last night, I tried to watch. I say tried because I only made it through the first ten or fifteen minutes of nothing less than child abuse focused on an eight and nine year old kids who were forced into playing football.
The first thing that caught my attention was a coach who stated that if adults let kids quit on the football field that just shows them it's fine to quit school or anything in life. That's so far removed from the realm of reality it's hard for me to imagine an adult could come to such an idiotic conclusion.
The second thing that gave me pause was the mother of an eight year old who was forced to keep practicing in the ninety plus degree heat after he threw up. The mother had the nerve to get in the child's face to let him know how disappointed she was in him and he needed to show how strong he was. That's when I stopped watching.
Anyone with any sense knows it's the parents and coaches who ruin sports for children. These supposed grown ups obviously have something deeply lacking in their own lives to push their children so hard and then try to live vicariously through their kids if those kids meet the idiotic standard of beating other kids in a football game, no matter the physical or mental toll.
If these parents and coaches want to influence children, let them show them by going through what they're putting them through. I'd have a hard time believing any of them would or could do it. This isn't just about Texas either, their are hundreds of examples around the world of less than intelligent people in positions of responsibility relating to the development of youth through sports.
No comments:
Post a Comment